As part of its upgrading programme for its Europe-India service, Rickmers-Linie has added the 17,000dwt newbuilding Rickmers Tianjin to the schedule. The base ports served are Hamburg, Antwerp, Genoa, Mumbai and Chennai, but the service is capable of calling at a wide variety of additional ports on inducement.
Rickmers Tianjin (12,772gt) joins her sistership Rickmers Yokohama and the charter ships Linde, Martin and Baltic Winter on the Indian service. On her maiden voyage from Europe, Rickmers Tianjin was named in the Port of Mumbai on 9 January. This is the first time Rickmers has held a naming ceremony in India, but it continues a modern tradition of choosing locations for such celebrations at ports that are important in the Rickmers network.
Rickmers Tianjin and Rickmers Yokohama are 17,000dwt vessels, each equipped with an 80-tonne and two 150-tonne cranes. This enables them to lift up to 300 tonnes by twinning the two larger cranes. The ships employed on the revamped Indian service offer greater flexibility and are able to serve ports such as Mumbai.
